Punishment Game
by Evangelical
Summary: Sawada Tsunayoshi was just an ordinary, harmless teen, according to the files given to Reborn by the Vongola. But it seems like the information was wrong, very wrong: ordinary boys weren't feared, ordinary boys weren't so respected, and certainly ordinary boys weren't irrevocably insane.


**Name: **Punishment Game

**Summary: **Sawada Tsunayoshi was just an ordinary, harmless teen, according to the files given to Reborn by the Vongola. But it seems like the information was wrong, very wrong: ordinary boys weren't feared, ordinary boys weren't so respected, and certainly ordinary boys weren't irrevocably insane.

**A/N: **Slow in the first chapter, will get worse later. Those of you who are not comfortable with violence/gore, don't read.

* * *

Reborn first noticed that something was wrong when he was walking to his student's house.

Or at least, his future student's. Just days ago he had received the order to find and tutor none other than Sawada Iemitsu's son. He didn't complain; he just hoped that this assignment wouldn't be nearly as dreadful as having to tutor Dino. The blond had never learned anything really quickly, and it drove Reborn to the end of his line to keep his frustration in check.

Walking down the misty road, he wondered how his new student was going to be. The information that the Vongola provided was vague and utterly incomplete: it was a mere collection of grades (which were terrible), age, birthday, and nothing remotely useful. Reborn could care less about what Tsunayoshi's blood type was. What he wanted to know was what Tsunayoshi's personality was like. The observers that the Vongola had stationed around the town were completely incompetent, Reborn decided. Surely after years of watching they would have been able to record something.

When he neared the Sawada residence, he paused. Standing in front of the gate were two figures. From this distance he couldn't distinguish their features or what they were saying, but it seemed odd. It was early in the morning, barely nearing five, and the sun was still absent. Yet the two were talking lightly, as if standing in front of the house was perfectly normal, despite the dangerous time.

With a sigh he moved closer, irritated at how the day was beginning to turn out. He hadn't drunk his daily cups of espresso in days now, trying to organize and learn everything that he needed to know for this trip, and the withdrawal was making him annoyed. Coupled with the clinging mist, two stupid teens, and the fact that it was a Monday meant that his patience was already being sorely tested.

He could hear their voices now, and determined that the speakers were a boy and a girl. Just as he began to listen in the voices stopped and silence reigned.

"Who's there?" called the male voice, sharply. Reborn stayed still, he had been certain that he had moved quietly. On his hat, Leon shifted uncomfortably, changing into a gun at Reborn's silent command. He didn't answer, instead hopping onto the nearest tree, hiding his tiny body within the mass of rustling leaves.

The girl grumbled loudly. "Haru knows that you're there! Come out!"

Reborn remained silent, inching forward on the tree branch. Luckily the breeze was blowing, causing all of the leaves to rustle noisily, because despite his size he managed to jostle a couple of leaves with his movements. As stealthily as he could, the tiny hitman moved forward, peering down when he could see them.

The two teens were illuminated by the streetlights, the yellow hue giving their skins a golden glow. Now that he was closer he could see that both of them had their backs turned toward the house. The boy was tall, with raven black hair and wary brown eyes that scanned the surroundings without a sound. He was well-built and clearly athletic, judging from the toned build underneath the white shirt. Slung behind his back was a metal baseball bat. Reborn wasn't too sure what the sports equipment was for, but he couldn't be too cautious. He noted to keep one part of his mind out to watch the potential weapon.

The girl, Haru, seemed surprisingly normal. She had her hands on her hips, lips pursed, and was looking around with a mild frown. Long brown hair was pulled up into a single ponytail, pinned in a couple of places, with the majority of her bangs brushed to one side. A black long-strap handbag dangled at her side. At least she had enough sense to wear a pair of pants, he thought vaguely. Haru seemed to be the type of girl to always wear skirts or dresses.

As he watched, she turned around again and met his eyes directly. For a moment they were both silent, brown eyes regarding black, and then Haru looked away and tapped her partner on the shoulder.

"Yamamoto-kun, Haru thinks Haru's found him!" Haru said rather loudly. Not one for subtleties, he thought wryly; her voice could have alerted the entire neighborhood of his presence.

The taller teen nodded once, and Yamamoto lifted his gaze until they were staring at each other's eyes. "Hahaha, there you are. I was wondering where you were hiding."

"Haru was scared when she heard you approaching!" the brunette declared with a shudder of relief. Then she smiled cheerfully, as if nothing had transpired. "You can come down now!"

Reborn frowned—it could be a trap—but after a brief moment of thought he hopped down anyway. They were just a bunch of teens, not a threat, at least not to the greatest hitman in the entire world.

"Hahi! A baby! Are you lost?" With a concerned frown she reached over to pick him up, completely disregarding the gun in his hands. Reborn decided that he didn't like her—she was beyond presumptuous—but he forced himself to remain still, or at least as still as he could get himself to remain. Shooting her in front of his student's house probably wouldn't be the best thing to do.

So he slapped her hand away instead. "I'm not lost," he said as amicably as possible. "And don't touch me; I'm a hitman."

But she didn't react in the way that he wanted her to. Instead of backing away in fear, she only gave him a patronizing smile. "It's alright to play with toy guns, but saying that you're a hitman to strangers is another thing. Come on, where are your parents?"

Reborn pulled himself away before he could blast her brains out.

"What are you doing here?" he asked instead.

Haru and Yamamoto exchanged surprised looks, before the former crossed her arms with a thoughtful expression. "You aren't from here?"

"No," he said warily, fingers tightening against the gun.

Clearly his answer to the strange question made sense to both of them, because Yamamoto grinned in realization. "That makes sense now," he said with a sheepish smile. "That's why you don't know."

Reborn ignored the opening that was intentionally left to ask for the explanation. Tipping his fedora upwards with the tip of his gun, he watched the two people in front of him. They hadn't strayed far from their original position, which left him to believe that they were hovering intentionally around the front gate to the Sawada residence.

Pondering his choices, he asked, "Could you move?"

Yamamoto's gaze narrowed and sharpened, and the bat shifted restlessly on his back.

"What do you need?"

"To speak with Sawada Nana and Sawada Tsunayoshi."

He was watching them closely now. Yamamoto's gaze flickered to his gun, and Reborn inwardly frowned. It was becoming painfully clear to him exactly what they were doing, but he couldn't think of the reason for it.

With a brilliant smile, Haru stepped forward again, but this time he could see the beginnings of something else lurking in her eyes.

"Haru will take your message."

Reborn met her gaze, and she stared back unflinchingly. He sighed in his mind; neither of them were going to back down anytime soon. Leaving a message would be easier, since he could always come back again when he wasn't eager to rip out someone's throat.

"Then, I want to drop something off in the mailbox."

The two teens exchanged looks before looking at him again.

"You're a foreigner," Yamamoto said at last, "so I suppose we should tell you. Everything you send through mail is filtered…meaning that we'll read it, one way or another."

Reborn really wanted to slam his head on something now. In all his life, sending a private message had never been as irritating, even when he was killing as an assassin. At least, he griped, he had known that it was likely that contact would be cut off, but this was ridiculous. Espresso was really looking good right now, and he hadn't sat through hours of digging up every piece of information that he could find to deal with being denied.

"Fine," he snapped, and he handed Yamamoto the sheet of paper. He had long since memorized what he had made up as his cover, line by line, and he waited. Yamamoto seemed to get the message, and he single-handedly unfolded the paper and began to read.

_Will raise your kid to be a leader of the next generation. Grade and subject doesn't matter. _

_Reborn_

As he read he tried to suppress an amused grin, but Reborn instantly spotted the reaction. He frowned, unsure of what was so funny. The files had stated that Tsunayoshi's grades sucked—all F's, so he really needed help—and here he was offering free services. But the nagging feeling he had first gotten when he entered the town hadn't gone away, instead it was intensifying by the moment.

Wordlessly Yamamoto handed the flyer to his partner, and she snorted. With the beginnings of a leer, she ripped the flyer to shreds and scattered the pieces into the air.

"Reborn-chan, you're quite persistent in trying to see Tsuna-sama, aren't you?" Haru simpered, voice disgustingly sweet, and she crouched down until her head was barely higher than his fedora. "But Haru supposes that since you are a child that you don't know how utterly _unconvincing_ your little ruse is."

In an instant he had moved, pressing the cold barrel of the gun to her forehead, while keeping his expression perfectly blank. Images of her maimed body assaulted his mind; he really wanted to kill her, right this instant. Even Dino hadn't been so infuriating, because at least Dino provided some entertainment what with screaming and running around. But Haru, Haru was just sitting there with that serene smile, not in the least scared by the prospect of being murdered in cold blood.

Reborn sensed the sword before he saw it. He jumped into the air as the blade slashed at the place he was standing in; a moment later and he would have lost his fedora. On reflex he pointed his gun, finger ready against the trigger, holding it at the swordsman.

Yamamoto stood in front of Haru, holding a sword in front of him protectively, the baseball bat nowhere in sight. Hazel eyes that were cheerful five minutes ago were now cold and hard. Reborn narrowed his eyes; something was wrong, these two were not ordinary, not ordinary at all. And if they were playing bodyguards in front of Tsunayoshi's house then that meant that his student, too, was _off_ one way or another.

Haru climbed to her feet, brushing off her pants leisurely as if she had all the time in the world.

"Hey, Reborn-chan," she smiled, "do you like games?"

It was the tone of her voice that caught his attention. Reborn wanted to look away, he had the sinking feeling that he knew exactly what type of games that she was talking about.

"No."

"That's too bad," she murmured. "It seems like we can't get along."

Slowly, clearly aware that he wasn't going to kill her, she slipped her hand into her bag and took out a camera. Her smile widened, and she lifted up her camera dramatically and prepared to take pictures. What for, Reborn didn't want to know, but the reason was definitely not good for him. Before he could let himself think twice, he shot three bullets at the device, but Yamamoto instantly slid in the way and deflected them off of his blade.

He clicked his teeth in annoyance as the camera flashed once, twice. Now they had his identity, his picture, and he didn't want to know what they were going to use it for. 'Though they probably can't hurt me,' a part of his mind mused, but he squashed the idea. Thinking along those lines was silly, it could get him killed.

But he couldn't hurt them if he wanted Tsunayoshi to accept him.

So he didn't move as Haru flipped open a cell-phone and dialed. Yamamoto was still in front of her, eyes wary, on guard in case he decided to attack.

"Hahi! Tsuna-sama!" Her voice took on a considerably lighter tone: warmer, more feminine, more like the normal girl that he had been expecting to see. "We have an intruder!" She paused. "Understood." Haru's lips pulled into a grin as she flipped the phone shut.

"What did he say?" Reborn asked tonelessly.

Her eyes gleamed. "That he doesn't want to see you."

He pulled his fedora lower, he should have known that Tsunayoshi didn't want to talk to him. Considering how Yamamoto and Haru prevented contact, he should have known that he, like everybody else, wasn't welcome.

With a final glare he relented, stepping backwards so he wouldn't turn his back toward the teens. Their satisfied smirks irked him, and he was tempted to break past the 'security' set in front of the gates. But Reborn didn't want his future student to despise him before even meeting him. Vongola Nono had sent him with the orders to train Tsunayoshi to become Vongola Decimo, and Tsunayoshi resenting the position was the last thing he needed.

As he melted into the shadows, he grumbled to himself. It seemed as though there was much that he needed to discover about the town before he tried to contact the brunet again. And he would contact Tsunayoshi, one way or another, in order to complete his orders.


End file.
